English filmmaker Roland Joffe has finished filming in Buenos Aires of There Be Dragons, a film based on the life of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. The director of The Mission and City of Joy embarked on this project because he believes it was “a very interesting thought that occurred to Escriva de Balaguer, his vision of life, and his idea that everyone can be a saint” and “to tell the story of a man who was only sanctified seven years ago”.

The film is set in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, and Charlie Cox (Tristan Thorne en Stardust), is playing a young Escriva de Balaguer at the beginning of his life’s work for the Church. In addition to Cox, the cast includes actors like Derek Jacobi, the American West Bentley, the Ucranian Olga Kurylenko (the last Bond girl), along with the Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro, Geraldine Chaplin and Spanish actors Ana Torrent and Jordi Molla.

There Be Dragons has production advice from Reverend John Wauck, US priest who lives in the Opus Dei’s headquarters in Rome and gives classes in literature and Christian Faith at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Ignacio G. Sanchez, producer of the film with Ignacio Nuñez, defends the autonomy given to Roland Joffe. “Both of us are Opus Dei members, but our mission is to allow space for freedom. The director is given a free hand. We were looking for someone independent, who is not connected to the Church,” he stated before making a solid defence of the organization with the challenge, “He who is not convinced can ask about it.”